Acts merely express the character.

The recollection of those acts is what impresses the character, and gives it a tendency in a particular direction.

And that is why I say, if memory were abolished, constitutionally bad people would remain at their original and normal degree of badness, instead of going from bad to worse, as they always have done hitherto in the history of mankind.
Memory is the principle of moral degeneration.

Remembered sin is the most utterly diabolical influence in the universe.

It invariably either debauches or martyrizes men and women, accordingly as it renders them desperate and hardened, or makes them a prey to undying grief and self-contempt.